Really Something
by heywildflower
Summary: A short, slightly fluffy piece I scribbled about Diego and Shira, just as the ship docks at the new island. Takes place just at the end of Continental Drift.


a/n: hello! this is my first fic published-just a short-ish piece of diego/shira because i've been pretty smitten with that pairing since the fourth instalment came out. thank you for stopping by and i hope you enjoy reading it!

disclaimer: i do not own _Ice Age._

* * *

The journey back to the island seemed a lot shorter than they remembered—and it was, they had Precious to thank for that.

"Mama loves you too!" Granny coos as the whale affectionately sends a light spray of seawater up to her.

Manny, Diego and Sid share a knowing smile. No sirens this time, thanks to the whale's guidance. No crazy weather at sea, and no crazy ape with his crew of floating bandits terrorising them, either.

On meeting said ape and bandits—Diego, in particular, has something to be thankful for out of that ordeal.

Or rather, _someone_. He can't stop the smile tugging at his face and has to conceal it with a rather funny-sounding cough.

 _That's cheesy_ , he winces inwardly at himself. _A remorseless assassin_...

The other animals are dispersing and Peaches and Louis have run off with the other kids. There's a sense of anticipation and hope lingering in the air around them—they can all feel it. It's a particularly uplifting feeling, like watching the sun emerge from behind the clouds after a thunderstorm.

...Granted, they had all just been through one. Ironically, Sid had been right—he always was, in a weird way. Here, now, was their rainbow around the corner.

The herd lingers on the ship for a while as they gather. Diego's eyes drifts lazily from Manny and Ellie talking quietly, to Sid marvelling over Granny's remarkable new set of teeth, to his niece as she and the other teens begin to explore the beach and the new island, to... _her_.

Shira's standing next to him with a faraway look in her eyes as she faces the familiar island. Her blue eyes, usually attentive and bright, are now distant—clouded as the familiar island opens a dam of past memories that rush and swell into her mind, akin to the waves that roll and crash onto the shore below.

It's like fog, a shroud of mist that mutes those striking ocean eyes of hers and betrays her hesitant, turbulent heart. And it's a fog that Diego hopes he can help clear.

A familiar-looking cliff in the background only serves to pull his thoughts in further to orbit around her.

They had been steadily revolving around her for a while now.

"You ever been here? With...the pirates?" Diego turns to her.

She blinks, as if he had just stopped her from dozing off, and he can almost see that fog in her mind clearing up as she registers his sudden question.

"Only a few times, not enough to know about the whole island. I only know about the cove," She replies.

"Switchback Cove..." Diego mutters, and Shira can't help but smile a little. They both remember the events that transpired there, the memories still bright and fresh in their minds' eye.

Diego coughs back an embarrassed laugh. "God, Shira, I..."

They're both thinking of the same thing—they both know it.

 _Come with us...come with me._

She quotes, "You're pretty soft, for a sabre."

"Again? Shira...it's getting old..."

Shira laughs softly. "Old but gold. You know it's true, _remorseless assassin._ "  
(She'd probably not admit this, but the way he said her name gave her butterflies—the beautiful kind, of course.)

Diego gives her a _look_ , and then—

"Wow Diego, your eyes are so soft right now!" Sid announces brightly, causing said sabre's eyes to widen. Manny and Ellie turn to look, amused, and Shira falls away laughing at Diego's flustered _I'm-going-to-kill-Sid_ face.

"Shira, you must be magical," Unfazed, Sid continues on with a wide smile, winking at Shira. (That's when Ellie first catches her name. In between laughs, Shira notices the female mammoth turn to face her with a warm expression on her face.)

Shira can't get the wide smile off her face as she nods laughingly back with Sid. "Remind me to thank Sid for always being there to affirm me," she teases the orange sabre softly, reminding him of that damned coral necklace—

Diego abruptly turns his head towards her with a humorously pleading look in his eyes, and for a moment their faces are startlingly close to each other, and would've stayed that way if Shira hadn't pulled her head back—half on instinct, half out of shock.

Ellie notices—and smiles knowingly. She chooses that moment to extend her trunk towards Shira.

"Shira? Hey, I'm Ellie. His wife," Ellie jerks her trunk towards Manny, who is currently trying to get out of being Granny's reluctant audience to her showing off her new dentures. Sid, for once, was smart enough to hide behind Manny to avoid the sprays of fruit bits as Granny enthusiastically bulldozes through the fruits nearby.

 _So you're Ellie_ , Shira thinks, remembering Manny mentioning an _Ellie_ and a _Peaches_ that night when she was stuck on the ice floe with them. There's an immediate warmth about Ellie, Shira realises—a loving kind of radiance that just surrounds her.

"I apologise if he was any trouble. you know, cranky and stubborn and just, you know, being _Manny_ ," Ellie continues on good-naturedly. Shira feels yet another a genuine smile breaking out on her face.

Was this possible? To feel so at peace with, well, strangers, practically.

Realisation hits her with a bittersweet pang. _Peaceful_ was far from how she felt with the pirates at all. Always on guard, on her toes, alert, watching...always watching...always ready to please...

Ellie notices, and already has an inkling of what Shira has been through, even though barely any words have been exchanged between them. This must've been the first time the sabress was readily welcomed like that.

Shira almost gets lost in her memories again, but this time, it's Ellie's words that anchor her back to the present.

"Welcome to our herd," Ellie smiles. "By the way, Sid's right—it must take some magic to turn our resident 'cold-blooded assassin' into a softie with sparkling eyes."

"Ellie, not you too..." Diego half-whines as Shira's eyes light up in laughter.

Ellie knows she's right, and Sid must've been too—the sabre was not one to openly share his backstory, but she knew a thing or two about the tough front he put up. And here he was, his front crumbling down as the way his hazel-green eyes softened each time they rested on their newest member betrayed his tough exterior entirely. Diego was most certainly falling, and if anything, he definitely wasn't the type to give his heart away to just anyone. This silver-furred sabress with beautiful laughter and an untold story must really be something.

—

"I'm right, aren't I?" Shira can't help but tease. Diego might've very well been blushing right there and then.

Well, perhaps no pinkish tint on his cheek fur—that was too low a level for a self-proclaimed remorseless assassin to sink to. But as far as his mental dictionary goes—it felt as if millions of little wings were fluttering and pulling at his heart, his heartbeat was picking up, and all he could see in his mind's eye was a blurry playback of _the L word_ and _Shira, Shira, Shira_ —perhaps he _was_ indeed blushing. Or at least, the Diego equivalent of it.

 _What the heck, maybe I_ am _falling.  
_  
"I'm not admitting to that," He says out loud (but mostly to himself. Though, he wouldn't admit that either.)

He hears Shira laugh softly next to him; it was a delicate, gentle sound, a shy expression of her joy, something that you wouldn't expect from a cold, hardened sabress.

Just like how you wouldn't expect a rugged, remorseless sabre to have his heart fluttering and falling at the speed of light.

It seems like they are more alike than they'd thought, both hiding a soft heart underneath a tough facade, and both refusing to admit it.

Diego smirks. "You're just as much of a softie as I am, kitty."

* * *

a/n: thank you so much for reading!


End file.
